License Plate of Beans - Bay State Edition

July 26, 2018 8:07 PM

Can anyone explain the algorithm for determining the letters/numbers on a Massachusetts license plate? I was driving across Massachusetts on the Mass Pike today, so had a lot of time to look at license plates. I don’t understand the reasoning behind where the letters and numbers are.

For other states I’ve lived in, the schema was obvious. In California, it was “#LLL###”. In Vermont, it is “LLL ###”. Massachusetts confuses me. Many of the plates seem to be “#LL ###”, but some have letters in what normally appear to be the number spots. A secondary common plate even does the groupings differently: “LLLL ##”.

What gives, Massachusetts?!?

Just to be clear, this variety of plates appeared on cars that all appeared to be non-commercial passenger cars. They did not appear to be vanity plates or any of the MANY specialty plates that Massachusetts issues.

posted by Betelgeuse to Grab Bag (5 answers total)

Basically, you see so many different formats because the RMV semi-regularly changes the format as it runs out of iterations. This site seems to detail the different formats and when they changed them, though it doesn't include the newest #LL ### format (which was active in 2014, based on a family member's plate), so it may not be 100% accurate. (Also anecdata: Same family member got a LLLL ## plate in 2005, a friend got a ### LL# plate around 2008, which aren't matching up completely with what the website is reporting, but maybe some sources aren't going through as many license plates as other sources.)

While searching to find out why Mass changes its format regularly, I found this fun fact (which is that the last digit of the plate indicates the month the registration expires).
posted by smangosbubbles at 9:50 PM on July 26, 2018 [6 favorites]

...Looking further, the fact that the last digit is the month of expiration is actually how plates are assigned in Massachusetts, versus most states issuing sequentially following a given format (wikipedia). (With the different LLLL ##, etc formats existing because they run out of serial numbers.)
posted by smangosbubbles at 10:10 PM on July 26, 2018 [4 favorites]

During my lifetime in Illinois, our plate format has changed from LLL ### to L ### ### and now it's LL# ####, but a plate can be renewed indefinitely and they can be transferred between vehicles, so most of the cars you see are still using the second format and some still have the first; I believe they will even re-issue your old number on a new plate if your plate gets old enough. If I see a car with the first format I know it's registered to someone older than me, because they stopped issuing those before I got my license; if I see a car with the third format I know it's either a relatively new car or has been registered to a new owner relatively recently. With a bit more data you could figure out what year cars with the second and third formats were registered, since the letter portions are the same on all plates issued during a particular period of time.
posted by jordemort at 7:10 AM on July 27, 2018

I live in Massachusetts, and, anecdotally speaking, in some cases people who are very fond of their plate numbers can have them reissued again, and again. This usually is restricted to the really old plates which only had a series of five numbers or less, but, that might explain why we have so many different plates on the road.

Also, we are not required in Mass. to get new plates when we get a new vehicle, so as long as the plate is in good condition it can be transferred again, and again. (I had one set of plates for over 15 years!)
posted by Hanuman1960 at 7:32 AM on July 27, 2018 [2 favorites]

There's an article that lists the specific plate styles and formats for Massachusetts, too.

Looking at the formats, I think the difference from other states is that Massachusetts plates only have 6 characters, and using formats with more numbers and fewer letters means that they exhaust all possible combinations within a format more rapidly than if they had more letters and fewer numbers.

Reserving one numeral for the month of expiry means that they have to issue a new format once the month with highest registration volume fills up, though per the link in the first answer, even after one month's plates are all used, they apparently will still issue from an older format in other months for a while afterward. Eventually, I assume that a format is retired with some months still having unused plates, so effectively, they've got more than 5 but less than 6 characters to work with.
posted by yuwtze at 7:48 AM on July 27, 2018 [2 favorites]